AUSSIE WEEKENDER 23

It was Christmas day. All we know was we can’t expect anything to be open and working. The shopping mall in Parramatta had closed after a 32 hours continuous sales, yesterday evening itself. The same with the public transport also. And Christmas is a unique day in a calendar year that almost all cruises and other site seeing trips also will be closed.

It was noon by the time we woke up. The Saturday was spent at home itself as it was a hot day, with mercury climbing to 37degree Celsius. We started looking for something which can help us to enjoy an evening, and somewhere we have never been to. The net dial-up came handy. There was this Hawkesbury River, but no information available for any cruises on web. Anyway, most of them will be closed today. We got hold of a wharf of the river while looking at the plan-your- trip site. It was all quick. We decided to give it a try at around 2. We could start by 3pm train from Parramatta and reach the river side by 4:30, and spend 2-3 hours there and can be back home by 9 !

We had no worries in getting the connecting trains, except the expected waiting time in Strathfield station for the connection. The 25 mins waiting under the asbestos sheet roof in the heat was a bit irritating.

The train journey was peaceful; we had enough food also to survive till we come back. Train passed Hornsby and Berowra which are the city rail limits. It dropped us at the Hawkesbury station by 4:40. We had river on both sides and the rail going in between that (Picture).
The river was full of yatches, motor boats, and house boats but most of them stationary! The wharf was mainly meant for fishermen. There were one or two cruises available on normal days. But all closed for Christmas!

We walked through the banks taking snaps of the houses on water on the other side of the river, ‘busy’ fishing people, the personal boats been brought to the shore with a trailer (Picture) and then pushing it to float (a lot of private boats were moving around). We also enjoyed a group of Pelicans fighting with the seagulls for the fish people feed them from their catch (Picture).

Some people were having their Christmas with family along the banks; the family means 6-15 people here as I have mentioned earlier! Except for that, it was pretty empty in spite of having the parking lot full of cars! I have heard of some houseboat packages here, with around 750 to 1500 AU$ per night! Oh, my little Kerala !

It was a bit hot still, but people were enjoying diving in to the water from the jetties to kill the heat. I got a long picture of the whole view of 120 degree( It was a 180 degree plus view but cropping to reduce memory)(Picture at the top).We started back by 6:40 train, reaching back in Parramatta by 7:50. It was a short but a sweet experience; a memorable evening spend on the banks of Hawkesbury river!

Wishing you all a very very Happy New Year 2006 ! See you next Year !

Tailpiece : It is New Year Eve tomorrow ! And Sydney is ready for the site setup for people who come to see the fireworks. If you need to see the same from a good position like Opera house( I mean around the Opera house premises), you have to be there by 1pm and then wait till midnight ! The forecast is 35 Degree Celcius for 31st December. They are planning to close the areas once the count is reached. If you have money, you can get the best views from Mrs. Macquarie's chair paying 190 AU$ per person and going there by around 7 pm. Even the meadows of Royal Botanical Garden is been sold out for 145 AU$ per head ! There is a freeway or a flyover near the Harbour bridge. They have conducted a contest through 'The Daily Telegraph' newspaper in the first week of December and selected some 1000 people for free passes to stand there and celebrate the Eve!

This is the site where you can see more details of the same:
http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/nye/ I have some write-ups ready for next week, but I hope I will have the New year celebrations experience which will get priority above them all.

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The summer is peaking, the days are becoming longer. The nights are cool, but they are short! The Sun rises by 6 and sets by 8:30. I think I have never seen this before. So I was always thinking that long days are good and was looking forward to them. It is good to have long days during vacation but for working days, it is a problem. You feel like it is only getting dark for taking your supper, and end up in miscalculating the time to settle down while will make you tired waking up the next day morning (it is anyway a tough thing to get up at 7:30, but now blame it on the Sun).
We had our limitation that we can’t walk too much, and have to be always in places where we can get something to eat or drink. It is not summer, if you misunderstand.
We started by 3 in the evening, the Sun stays at the top from 12 to 3 before climbing down J ! So getting out at 3 is as good as starting by 12. We had to get to bus for Circular quay from Central as there was some maintenance work happening.
It was a straight forward plan. We always get tired or late by the time we reach the gates of the Botanical gardens which is right in front of the Opera house. The gates close normally by 6 and in summer by 7. It is open to public. One side of it covered by the sea, the other side merges with the Hyde park. The Botanical garden contains some view points which gives you a fantastic opportunity to take the Harbour Bridge behind the Opera house (Picture).
There was a huge party happening in the sea-facing side. They call it the schoolies party, which is the school final year’s party. It is a big event here, and it is organised under the Schoolies banner than one for each school. So that area was fully crowded and noisy. The water in front of them also was full of boats may be owned by the students, containing 6 -7 students, and some people in the water too! And all of them drunk, to their limits.
But even that 500 -600 people party was just a corner of the park. We had to walk through the road in between the sea and the party, nothing annoyed except the noisy music. People are drunk, and that too teenagers. But still, we didn’t see any kind of indecent behaviour from them to the passer-bys. They were enjoying, true, but there it ends!
We walked to ‘Mrs.Mcquarie’s chair’ where you get the best of the Sydey-duo (Picture). And, it was very true! I have never seen them together like this for a snap! Again, we met with a lot of people in the just-married attire with their best people, taking snaps from there (Picture). The photographers/video-graphers were competing and queuing to take pictures of their clients. We had to find some odd spots from the sea shore, to get a picture, being unable to compete with the marriage crowd (picture).
We spent sometime sitting on the rocks near the water. Walked back to the internal of the green; there was a marriage going on in the meadow with a glorious small crowd (Picture). It seems the place has been used for private functions!
Taking snaps of these functions, we walked to circular quay back. Outside the gates there was two marriage parties waiting at the gates for the toy train to pick them up in to the Botanical garden.
It was already 7. We slowly walked to towards the other side of the quay. The sky was getting dark slowly, as it was a cloudy day. The sea breeze was cool or even chilly when the summer has begun already and the day was hot too! We got a good view of Opera House in Twilight from the other side of the quay (Picture at the top). That side had a lot of restaurants; we tried to find one for us. There was an Italian restaurant which had neither pizza nor pasta! All of them specialized with Sea food L. So couldn’t do much there. To the railway bus stop for the substituting buses to get back to the Central and train from there back home.

Tailpiece : Australia is hotter than what I thought ! Sydney is not that bad in terms of temperature, but I think we feel the heat because of the variations. One day it will be maximum 20 and the next day it will jump to 30 or 32. Still, the nights are 17-18 normally. But the middle part of Australia and the northern part is very hot. Places like Darwin shows in 40s !

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We are slowly limiting our trips to the city and just exploring some areas in the downtown for a couple of months. It was a sunny day, and we started around 4. It is not a problem because the Sun is on till 8, and it is slowly increasing (it seems it will go till 10 in peak summer).
Our plan was to just spend an evening in the Hyde Park. We got down at Town Hall and slowly were walking to the Hyde Park. At the first junction, the traffic was blocked to turn right, and the road was crowded. A Spanish Summer festival going on !
We crossed the road and joined the crowd. It was like a local festival! All stalls for food, obviously stalls for bangles, earrings and so on. Two artificially-long-legged dancers walking in between the crowd, we kept walking to the end of the crowd, which was a stage. I could see people crowded even from the nearby old buildings to get a good view of what is happening.
There was one man on the stage with a couple. The man was giving clear instructions to the crowd and the couple was showing it, and they were learning Spanish dance. We stood there for sometime, and walked to the main stage at the next cut road.
The only intolerable thing was the smell of hot dogs everywhere, so we couldn’t stand there much. Slowly walked to the Hyde Park getting out the crowd. A pleasant evening at the Hyde Park surrounded by War memorial on one side, a beautiful fountain on the opposite end, and the St.Mary’s Cathedral on one of its sides. We just had a relaxed walk through the Hyde Park. Krithi was upset with some scene happening on the sides – a couple of young ‘same-sex’-couples (of both sex) enjoying the summer and each other J. Some guys trying to stand in a single wheel with their bikes and some taking photos , it was a pleasant evening.
We crossed the road to St.Mary’s Cathedral. Sunday evening service was going on inside. Krithi was very keen on looking inside a church. We were hesitating at first, but then saw a couple of tourists going in, we followed them. It was not a worry even to take a picture without a flash as I couldn’t find any notice saying no photos (I have seen people taking video in the temple here, so I think it is not an issue here).
Walked around the premises and started walking back to the Town Hall station by around 7:15. Got in to a ‘Hungry Jacks’( it is a fast food chain like McD, but I would say these people top here and what I see in McD is not the same class which I saw in London, or not even South Africa) for veggie burger, some chips and a milk shake. Back in Town Hall station around 8, the sky was just getting dark. Just took a train back home finishing one of those very peaceful, or rather lazy weekends here.
I hate to bore you if I have nothing new or eventful to write from my side. But the World is wonderful, and each day is so different.
As Australia is getting ready to celebrate Christmas, Sydney planning for a 4 million dollar New Year celebration at the Harbour Bridge, I am hoping to find something new for the next week…bye for now…

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Melbourne and Sydney fought for becoming the capital of Australia and Canberra won! The only eligibility for Canberra becoming the capital of this continent nation is its location. It is the capital of this continent country just because it is located in the middle of Sydney and Melbourne! And it was my mistake that I overlooked this story as a joke!
We had to catch the train at 6:58AM from Central station. That means we have to start another one hour before, and assume that the frequency of local trains are normal. The daylight had already taken over from the streetlights by around 5AM itself! We started by around 5:40, and we were in the central by 6:30. The train had only 4 coaches, and one of them is this cafeteria! Just three coaches for passengers, two for normal and one first class!
The train started by 7, not even these two normal passenger coaches were full or rather one of the coaches was fully empty! Two young couples, one behind and one in front, were making scenes disturbing other passengers. And another Sri Lankan lady with full of bangles was talking non-stop to her fellow passengers, and went to the vacant coach to change in to a sari and was explaining the others about saris and Indian make-ups. She was supposed to be a Bharatanatyam dancer studied dance in some Jaffna University.
The sky was cloudy; still we got some pictures of harvested fields, and horses. It reached Canberra by 11:30, and getting down and coming out, I had the shock of my life! The station resembled a village station, with a single platform and two three lines for shunting!
We came out of the station to see nothing but a village outside! There is a bus every 20 mins to the city centre. We were lucky for that one thing; a bus came to pick us within 5 minutes.
We were to come back to this station to catch the 5 O’ clock train back to Sydney. So all we got was some 5 and half hours to see Canberra and that too, it looks at least an hour will go in this transfer from and to the station.
The bus dropped us in a stop for Parliament house, and it was a deserted place with this parliament building except for a single policeman! We walked to the other side of the building where the entrance is for the Parliament building. We took some pictures and got in, it was free entry and still not very crowded. We joined a guided tour which is done by a staff every 30 minutes. They walked us through the hall where the main functions happen. It was started with only official functions, but late was decided to be allowed for private functions, dinners and parties seeing it is not used very often J. We walked in to the house of representative chamber, but we had to see it from the press/public sitting area. We could walk in to the press part of the senate also and take some pictures. The big seat in the senate is still kept for the Queen or anyone from the British Royal family. If none of them are there, it will remain empty! That is, still the Senate is presided over by the Queen! I And for me, it is the first time that I am standing at a place where a country’s governing body sits! Still the person who was taking us for the tour was telling, I know you still may be feeling bad that you couldn’t go down there and have a feel of it!
We could take a lift and go to the terrace, and get a view of the surroundings. We took the best sides of it including the long path, through the Old parliament house leading to the War memorial at the far end!
Done with the Parliament building, we came out and walked to the old Parliament house ( the white building in Picture).
Our problem was slowly beginning, there is no shop, no restaurant anywhere nearby and the ones in the Parliament house was too expensive and with no veggie option. All we had taken with us was 2 bananas, I never thought I will end up in such a ‘capital’ !
We walked in to the old Parliament house, which was the assembling place till 1988. They took an entry fee of A$2 for the preservation. We were allowed to sit in the very seats where the senators use to sit, and take pictures, and we could see the offices of the ministers and all. Getting out of it, our problem has become acute as we were not finding any vegetarian food! It was again 3, and we also realised that the next bus to the station is at 4:05 and after that we will get one more bus at 5:05 which won’t suffice to catch our train! We couldn’t see anything other than greenery and some isolated protestor’s tents . We could do nothing, but just sit and wait for the next bus. We saw some marriage ceremony happening in one of these gardens around us, but this one was fenced well. I managed to zoom in the piper from my waiting shed . I was still trying to take some snaps, but Krithi was fully exhausted .
It was another adventure when we got the bus. We found a place on the way where there were a couple of restaurants, and we even saw a South Indian restaurant! We got down at that stop, and the driver told us it will take some half an hour to the station by walk. The time was 4:15 and we have 15 mins to get something to eat and start walking! The road was not straight again, and if we loose the way, there is neither signboard nor a person to ask for in the bureaucratic jungle!
Situation worsened when we realised that most of the restaurants are getting ready for dinner, the Indian one was closed, and we will not get anything by 4:30! Then, it is worse than before! We have to now walk with this tiredness and hunger!
We managed to get a vegetable puff sort of thing and started walking briskly. I was looking for a taxi, but I know on this unlucky day, I will not find any!
We got one or two people showing us the way to the railway station. The roads were all having meadows followed by fences covering big bungalows of bureaucrats and diplomats! We reached the station in time.
Krithi tasted the veggie puff stuff and gave me a pathetic look! We could do nothing, but dump it in the nearest bin, it was so tasteless. A coffee and a couple of cookies from the train’s cafeteria, and that was the first food after the banana taken hours ago! We said good-bye to the Capital, with bad memories. Now we know, why Aussie himself hate this place!
Krithi let out a roar of joy seeing Kangaroos jumping away from the train! We are seeing them in the open space first time in Australia. The light was so bad and the train was very fast that I couldn’t photograph them! We had to wait till getting back home by around 10:30 to have a good Supper.

AUSSIE WEEKENDER 19

I was missing one more Diwali in India! I remember Vivek (my project manager in South Africa) was once talking about his missing first Diwali after marriage because of a foreign assignment. He was mentioning this to console me when I was sad missing my first Onam ever missed. I remember clearly that I had decided that I will make sure I don’t do the same! But here I am, missing my thalai-Diwali (that is what we call for the first Diwali after marriage).
I was just thinking of another no-crackers-normal-day Diwali. Then we heard of a Diwali celebrations being held at the Sydney Olympic park every year and the expected crowd is around 22,000!

We were planning to go to this Olympic park from the beginning itself, as one of the fillers. Now it is a chance to see the infrastructure constructed for the Olympics as well as celebrating a Diwali! It is an isolated part for the railway lines. We have to get down at Lidcombe and then take the Olympic park sprint line shuttles, which takes a 10-15 mins to the Olympic park station.

It was a Sunday just before Diwali. The day was hot (I mean it was hot compared to the previous day and this variation makes it worse. So though it may be 28 or 29, you will find it very hot as the previous day it may have been only 20), so we waited till evening. Started around 3, got down at Lidcombe, and crossed over to the Olympic park Sprint line. There was a huge Indian crowd waiting for the train. Though the function has started by 11, it seems most people planned it for the evening due to the heat!

We reached the Olympic park station around 4. It resembled me of the Canary Wharf station in London. One of the most modern stations I have seen in Sydney. I forgot to take the photos thinking I will do it while coming back and by then my memory card was full.

We walked with the crowd to the stadium, waited in a long queue for the entry ticket where people would have stood for getting an entry to see the opening and closing ceremonies during Sydney Olympics! We got to see it was a huge crowd. I won’t see it is an Indian crowd, as most have gone in to this ‘confused’ mode for their dresses, make-ups and all J (like crows fitted with peacock’s attire). There was a stage facing the gallery, and something was happening there. We walked around the ground which was full of stall, mostly food stalls!

We tried some dosai and pav bhaji only to realise that it is all not worth anything! These food stalls were mostly opened by the indian restaurants in Sydney. But I think they were sending the cook-trainees or waiters to cook here, so that their business at the hotel is not going down. Anyway, they know this crowd will eat anything today! We threw half of the dosai as it was still in crude state. Pav bhaji was full of salt! It was again amazing to see all these stalls crowded and people were waiting in a queue.

We could see a lot of Aussies, some with their families, and some Aussies with Indian wives too.
They all seem to be having an Indian feelJ. There were 3-4 policemen (Picture) stuck in between this 22000 people !

It was getting dark by around 6. We moved to the gallery to get a place to see the fireworks and there was a huge Ravan (Picture) ready to burn downJ. Australian Hindu council was organising this function. The stage was facing us, and the programmes had stopped and some speeches were going on. One guy was giving a long speech and was telling all funny things about Hinduism and at last stated that ‘it is the fastest growing religion in the World’! Good that it was Sydney; it would have been different if it were Europe! Aussie is already afraid that he is loosing his identity with all these people flowing in, and now this 22K plus people assembling and making such funny statements…. Gosh! Again, there were a handful of people present from the local administration and even had a message from John Howard (Aussie PM) in the plasma screen. But anyway, the crowd was not listening to it, none even bothered to give a clap for the speeches (anyway, these speeches doesn’t deserve any either). Then, was the last programme on stage which got some attention, the bhangra (Picture ).

The best part of the day started by around 7:30, beginning with the burning of Ravan. It was followed by a memorable firework show lasting for some half an hour. I just started recording the fireworks (picture) in my camera as video clip and ended up in exhausting my memory card!

We were done by 8. Then another problem, all these crowd packing back in to the train! I only realised that most of the people have come in their cars, when I found the train literally empty!was But where was the crowd waiting in Lidcombe while we were coming?! Back home, and edited off my firework clippings to make space before ending the weekend.

Tailpiece: Australia had got three time zones: one is AEST( Eastern Standard time), WAST( West Australian ST ), and CYST( Central Standard Time)one zone in the middle. On Oct 30th, we set one hour ahead for day light saving and there comes the joke. The daylight saving is done by only 3 or 4 states! The rest are still in their normal time! Brisbane which is in our same time zone is now 1 hour behind Sydney! But luckily, Melbourne and Canberra are with us in the same boat. So we call Sydney time now as AEDT (Australian Eastern Daylight time). How is that?!

Aussie and me : We mostly struggle to get someone to take our photo. After the digital one has come, we try with the timer or handheld with the LCD screen facing us. That enables us to see how the picture will come. But most of the times, I see someone will come over to us offering help and it always will be an Aussie, not any other tourist!

Tailpiece: Australia had got three time zones: one is AEST( Eastern Standard time), WAST( West Australian ST ), and CYST( Central Standard Time) one zone in the middle. On Oct 30th, we set one hour ahead for day light saving and there comes the joke. The daylight saving is done by only 3 or 4 states! The rest are still in their normal time! Brisbane which is in our same time zone is now 1 hour behind Sydney! But luckily, Melbourne and Canberra are with us in the same boat. So we call Sydney time now as AEDT (Australian Eastern Daylight time). How is that?!
Aussie and me : We mostly struggle to get someone to take our photo. After the digital one has come, we try with the timer or handheld with the LCD screen facing us. That enables us to see how the picture will come. But most of the times, I see someone will come over to us offering help and it always will be an Aussie, not any other tourist!

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There is nothing great in seeing a zoo, and it again becomes thought worthy when the entry fee is nearly 1000 rupees per head! Still Taronga zoo is an attraction in Sydney involves a ferry and a ropeway to the zoo gate (Picture) from the Circular quay. It also gives a good view of the Sydney’s duo symbols – Harbour Bridge and opera house- from the Giraffes’ fence!
We took a day-tripper which gives us a 20% discount at the zoo entry (other than the free travel in bus, train and ferry). It has got discounts in almost all attractions if presented for the same day.
It was a sunny day. We took ferry to the city, and changed at the Circular quay for thr ferry to Taronga. Ropeway to the zoo gate and there we go…
The zoo walk started with an exciting peacock opening up her feathers (what do we say for it?) and just walking around us. It was left free in the zoo compound (Picture)! The rest was almost the same, except for a large play area for Chimpanzees and Gorillas (Picture). They also got a lot of toys to play with, inside their play room. The lions, tigers (Picture) gave me a good photograph as I never had to increase my aperture to decrease the field of depth and make the iron bars of the cages vanish; they were all in view through glass. There was a large area saying Asian elephant rainforest, and there was even an elephant temple but there was no elephantJ ! It just reminded me of the old Suppandi joke where the waiter says,’ will you have Mysore in Mysore bonda’!
Meerkats gave me some good photographs (picture). The big version of them has come out very well, though I won’t be able to attach them. They will come to an MB eachJ.
Giraffes and Zebras were the lucky ones to have the Sydney highlights in their background as (picture)I mentioned earlier.
We struggled to find some vegetarian food for lunch, found one of the shops selling pizzas at last! Done with the zoo by 3:30. The ropeway was closed due to strong winds. We had to run down to the ferry to catch the ferry which only comes once in half an hour. Just missed the boat, and so too early for the next one! Looking through the shore, Krithi spotted a lonely area full of white sand. We had no idea whether we will be able to go there. Took a walk through the bushes to reach that part and spend sometime in that ‘Cast Away’ beach (Picture)!
We had to run again to catch the next ferry, took another ferry to Manly beach (which is one of the famous beaches in Sydney next to Bondi) back in the Circular Quay just to have a look at it and come back( to make sure the money spend for the day-tripper got its return ;) ). The journey was pleasant , but windy. The wind became very strong and chilly; we couldn’t enjoy the journey standing on the deck. At the Manly quay, it was getting dark and the sky way beautiful (Picture). We didn’t bother to walk to the beach just stayed there enjoying the sky.
Back to Circular quay, by the next ferry and there was this beautiful cruise ship in standing in the Circular quay, in the middle of the Harbour Bridge and the opera house! There goes another shot from Circular quay station (Picture16).

Cheers
Venki

Tailpiece: There was this talk about Melbourne cup everywhere and it seemed all were waiting for the D-day! It was basically horse racing. The newspaper reported the profiles of each horse each day, the television went on showing talk with the trainer of Horse X and jockey of Horse Y and even in the office cafeteria or breakaway area, it was all Melbourne cup! At last the D-day came and we all got a mail to be invited to the central hall of the office for seeing the Melbourne cup at 3:15 in the plasma screens. I thought it may be some inaugural ceremony or something and may be an event which will go on for a week.
I went there and the race started by 3:15, it was all over in 15 mins! A lot of happy faces, lot of sad ones and all back to work! The Melbourne cup was over!!! The horse which won is winning the third time in a row, and it is history! They were talking about stuffing this Makybe Diva (that is the horse’s name) in the museum when it dies, proudlyJ ! But I will say, It is not yet dead, mate! It is alive! How will you feel someone talking about stuffing you when you are getting an Olympic gold medalJ .Crazy Aussies!

Aussie and me: We were all going to Brisbane and the other guys were bit more noisy and they have come with snake& ladder and card. Just joined them and we were arguing and laughing and all sort of …! People responded very positively, even passing some funny comments while passing our chairs, saying like ‘ I like this seats, you people are so happy’ or ‘ hey, watch this guy, he is cheating’(pointing at one of us) etc. !

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Sydney’s aquarium is boasted as one of the main attractions in Australia. I have only seen these under water walk through a glass corridor in films.
We had checked the previous weeks while in the city on the feeding times, and they Shark feeding was around 11 AM and the Seal feeding was at 3PM. There is a Great Barrier reef tank( with the species seen specially in Great Barrier reef) feeding in the middle. The ticket is for the day, and once paid we are allowed to go out and come back till it closes for the day. But the charge comes to 30 bucks per head!
We started by around 10, and we were stuck in the train to get down at the Town Hall itself by 11. Just took our time to walk to the Darling harbour where the aquarium is situated. Got the first hit when the batteries went down in my new digital camera just bought two days ago. I was thinking that the AA batteries will last more. Anyway, had a set of new cells in reserve but still it was a shock that I hardly have taken some 10-20 photos on it ! A small queue to get through the entry, it was normal fish tanks to begin with; contain some colourful and rare species. Then we went in to the tunnels for shark and seals. I think I ended up taking some 100 plus pictures and a couple of small movies. Some good ones were the shark, ghost fish(that is the name I put), and Moon jelly fish.( attached as Pic 1,2,3).
We finished the tour in 3 hours. After a pizza lunch in one of the outdoor restaurants in Darling harbour (See picture4), we walked back in to aquarium by 3 for watching the Seal feeding. We reached there by 2:55, and saw that the seals also were impatiently waiting for the feedingJ. They were coming up, looking around to see anyone with the Navy blue T-shirt and going back in to water and started making noisy scenes! It was pretty interesting to see them jumping when two guys turned up. One of them was very hungry that it came to the door and started knocking it (see the picture5). It was joy eating all the fish the guy had and still sadly looking at him ‘are you done?’J!
We came out of the aquarium, buying nothing from their souvenir shop as it looked unreasonably costly! I am strongly positive NOT paying the same amount I gave for a souvenir for Tower of London built even before Australia itself was ever discovered, for a souvenir of an aquarium (built in early 90s)!
It was only 4 and we had some good time to go for a walk. We slowly walked towards the Harbour bridge which seemed very close (in the map ;) ). We walked through the street high above the harbour level and we could see the port area and the cargo. This area looked pretty deserted and old (see the picture6).
Krithi was excited seeing a marriage happening in Darling Harbour. As usual, she was just stuck there seeing their dress. There are cruise boats which can contain a hundred people who can sit around and have a dinner there. While started walking I told her that I will show more marriages on the way, but I never thought it will become a reality!
After walking through the port area, we climbed a hill. We realised only reaching the top that we are on top of the Sydney Observatory Hill! It gives an excellent view of the Harbour bridge on the other side (picture7), and a lot of grooms& brides were flowing in – some with a photographer who brought them there to take some pictures (Picture8), some were just getting married in the church just below (Picture9,10). We saw some 5-6 couples in their marriage dress and then their gang of friends wearing beautiful uniform, it was a happy atmosphere. We walked between them to climb the other side crossing the road leading to H.bridge.
The walk ended in the gates of Botanical garden by around 6! We had walked for 2 hours! Krithi was too tired as these 2 hours was in addition to the walks inside the aquariumL. Though we had chairs to sit for every km, and were walking slowly, it would have been some 4-5 kms. Just sitting there for sometime enjoying the crowd, people were enjoying the climate change. Took a glorious night shot from Circular quay station from where you can see both the bridge and opera house through the glass (see Picture 11).
I had almost finished 200 plus pictures that day fearing the batteries will go down any moment! They still have not done as I changed to rechargeable batteries the very next day.
Please write back how is this new look of weekender to you. I have their huge version( with each one weighing 600KB) with me in case you are interested :D.

N B :- The picture number is the number prefixed with each picture.
Aussie and me :- I was rushing in to a bus which was about to leave and I have to pay 2 dollars. I opened my purse and looked for a 2$ coin. It is thick, but small, so not easy to find in between the 10c, 20c and 50c lot. I had notes in the next rack anyway. The driver cooly told me, ‘ Just relax, mate ! I can wait here and take all your changes if you can’t find a 2$ coin’ !

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Day 2 in Brisbane:
The previous night’s broken sleep and the day’s walks and go–around had made us so tired to get up at 7! We had to get ready and take the breakfast before the pick-up bus turns up at our hotel at 7:50.
After been picked up at 7:50, our real trip started by 8:45. We were out of the city in 15 mins! Big buildings gave way to houses which were raised above the ground with logs! There are two reasons for this: one, to escape from the floods, and two, keeping away from the heat (coming from the ground) in summer. But in another half an hour, we were completely out of the suburbs (if you can call that villages suburb). We travelled through Pineapple plantations, Strawberry farms, and took an exit to drop a few people in the ‘Australian Zoo’. This is the place of our famous Discovery Crocodile Hunter - . He is in the effort of making this one the best in the World, raising money through television shows and documentaries. He inherited this flair for loving animals from his father who started the Zoo.
The Australian Zoo trip is planned in such a way that our Sunshine coast bus will drop them in the Zoo and on the way back, we will pick them up on our way back.
We went on, through sugarcane, mango trees and a lot of pines too, our destination was the so-called ‘world’s largest ginger factory’! The ginger farms, were surrounding us entering the factory premises. A big shop selling their products which are already in the market, welcomed us. A small train taking us around the premises, and some more shops, looked like making a good business out of it J. A tour in to the factory’s working, processing, and products constituted our 1 hour stay there. There was a coffee factory just, but the prices of coffee beans were as same as the stores back in the city.
During the tour there was a mention that volcanic soil is suitable for ginger and that is why it is so suitable here. But I couldn’t find any volcanos nearby!
Our next destination was Noosa, one of the main beaches in the Sunshine coast. It was fully crowded with people enjoying the Sun, and packed with resorts filling the coasts. A walk through the coast, and the busy Hastings Street; the street was full of people walking after the Sunbath to their rooms in the resorts. Had a lunch in one of the restaurants sitting outside – a Margeritta pizza with some basil flakes on it.
Sunshine coast is actually full of beaches; it would count to some 30 plus in all. The law goes like, you start from one end and keep walking till you find a lonely beach. Once you find it, the beach becomes yours for the day!
Started our journey back by 2, and stopped at the underwater world which is one of the replicas of Sydney Aquarium. We started from there by around 4 after the Seal show. It was heavy traffic and we could manage to enter Brisbane back by 6, late by about 5:30.
There was another surprise waiting for us in the Parkland gardens in front of our hotel - a multicultural Festival! It was just happening for a day, and we were in! There were some 10 stages where art forms from different countries were happening (stages segregated by dance, folk music or instrumental – not by country)! We had a chance to see a sitar recital and bhangra. Three girls took the whole crowd to dance on their will and the huge crowd dominated by Aussies were dancing in full! We happily went to try some Indian stalls for supper and they were closing down and dumped us with whatever they hadL. Mostly Sri Lankan people making all dosai and all saying Indian food, and it was junk. We could eat some that night, and threw away the rest next day morning as it was doneL. In between an old guy came with a receipt and managed to pull a 10$ note from my pocket for renovation of a temple in Brisbane! Who knows! Another Sri Lankan!
That ended our time in Brisbane.
Day 3 :-
We started by morning train, my intention was to travel and see the places in daylight. The train left Roma Street by 7:30. There was another mother who came off to see off her son( this son is around 35 plus), and she was just not ready to leave him J, going out of the train and coming back in. The guy got a bit embarrassed seeing us watching them, and said ‘she is not always like that J’. Anyway, as soon as the train left the station, he started his making of cigarettes with some powder and jumped out at every stop to smoke, it smelt horrible!
Farmhouses, horses, hell lot of huge cows, the countryside was beautiful. Lunch didn’t go well, we both got some roasted Pumpkin ravioli in cheese sauce! I could eat it somehow, but that was the only vegetarian dish available in our lunch car.
We reached Sydney back by around 9:40. We got down at Strathfield, a station which is more nearer to Parramatta and took another train home. That was a long journey in deed as Krithi was not enjoying sitting the whole day in the train.

Tailpiece: I think Aussies are one of the most tolerant people in the World as far as I have seen. I will start putting some events, one-by-one in the tail piece from next week onwards.

Information: Most of the railway is not electrified here in Australia. The local trains and suburban one are all electric lines, but the long distance trains run with Diesel engines!

AUSSIE WEEKENDER 15

Day 1 in Brisbane:
The sleep was not great. Anish and others got down at Casino at 3:30 without waking us up. Though I was getting up often, I was sleeping when they left.
The seat in front of us was a family with some 5-6 kids. The middle-aged fat mother was keeping herself awake providing sleeping space to her kids, giving them the seat spaces, making some space under the seats and the gaps in between the sets as a results of some seats turned around. They were also going for holidays. As I had written in my South African weekenders, I will think twice before saying that parents in the West don’t love their kids. And anywhere in the World, mothers are special creations!
The Sun was up and running by 5 AM itself! The light disturbed my sleep, the atmosphere was misty and in the mist, the farm houses, the trees and the meadows all looked glamorous. My intention to take the camera and take some shots was badly struggling against my sleep, but eventually won after a struggle of an hour! I started taking pictures (hope you have seen some misty pictures), and it continued till we started entering the urban areas and then slipped to sleep again.
The train reached Brisbane Roma Street Station by 6:30. We had another challenge to spend the day till noon efficiently before we check in to the Hotel (check-in times are 1PM normally).
Got fresh at the station, had a good breakfast with hash browns, pan cakes, and coffee in the food court just above the rail station. The hotel was told to be near to the station. We grabbed a map from the station and walked through the road to go around the station, climbing the hill behind it, to the hotel. The Jacqeranda picture (if you have seen the Brisbane pictures in my link) was taken during that time. A man picking up the flowers early in the morning was a bit surprising for me there. The brick red ‘taxis waiting at the stand’ (Brisbane Taxi stand) was also taken during that time.
The hotel was on the top of a hill, on the other side of the station. Later we found that we have a way through the station to the other side which is very short! There is a ticket machine which issues a free ticket to cross the tunnel to the other side through the station.
We reported at the hotel by around 8 and they normally keep our luggage till we check-in, if we need. That relieved us from roaming around with the bags. We checked some leaflets in the hotel and they booked a half day site seeing trip for us, with the pick-up from the hotel too! The charges are the same if I go to the site seeing company and book or I ask the hotel attendant to book it for me. We waited outside the hotel to be picked up by a small bus by 8:55. We had ample time before the pick-up came, so roamed around to take some pictures( posted as Roma street – Parkland) of the spring beauty from top of the hill keeping the Roma Street station in the background. The pick-up came to the main office and the trip started by 9:30.
Brisbane - the capital of Queensland State, is a small city, built around the Brisbane river. The river takes a U-turn in the middle of the city. The city got its name itself from the river, whose old name was Moreton Bay. Queensland itself was first suggested to name as ‘Victorialand’. Then the Queen Victoria was not keen going with this name as there is already a state in Australia called Victoria( Melbourne as its capital). So they made it Queensland. All streets facing north- south takes the name of Queens of England( Victoria St, Elizabeth Street etc), and the street cutting them – that is the streets from East to West are named after the King’s of England( Albert Street, George Street etc.).
Brisbane is basically a flood prone city. We can see the levels marked up about 4 metres from the ground, which was the level of water during one of the worst floods caused during late 19th centuryJ. They had floods some 10- 20 years ago which also was a destructive. Every year the level rises anyway, during the rains and the low lying areas will go under water. The place is dry and a bit hot too (it was 36 in the next week, when Sydney was still only getting warm), but the rains are also worse.
That was some highlights of what we learnt about the city during the trip. We stopped at a place called ‘Kangaroo point’ for taking some snaps (Brisbane-upon-River etc). That is where you can see the city downtown on the side of the river viewing from a hilltop on the other side.
Now, the Kangaroo point has got names because …there are two stories here. The first is interesting one. The aboriginals in the olden times use to chase Kangaroo’s to a point where they have no other choice than jump and die or face the spear (or whatever). So the brave kangaroos will splash jumping down, and others will get the death from man. Anyway, the aboriginal guy will get his meal. So the name came as ‘Kangaroo point’.
The problem with this story is, there is a river underneath this pointJ. Actually, if the kangaroos jump down, they will land in the river safely and will swim across comfortably. So I will leave that story as a tourist guide’s story to entertain his audience. The actual story goes like a British surveyor came to survey Brisbane, and he saw Kangaroo from this point and was thrilled with the sight that he named this place ‘Kangaroo point’ (hope you realised that meeting a Kangaroo other than in zoo, is very tough in this part of the continent though we have a lot of warning road signs for Kangaroo. I have to explore places where they are seen in lots.
We, then, passed Gabba cricket stadium( which got its name from the name of the suburb ‘Woolloongabba’. We moved to a century old pub named ‘XXXX’ for a breakfast (second one!), which was included in the trip. That was around 11:00. The trip was over in 2 hours, and what we have to pay for that was $48! He dropped us for the river cruise.
A river cruise with the city on both sides, and still, the houses and apartments were simple and elegant on the banks. We crossed the Storey Bridge, which was Brisbane’s answer to Sydney’s Harbour Bridge. In fact, the architect for this one was the same person who designed the harbour bridge!
We walked back to the hotel from the site seeing company office as the bus picked us up back till that after the river cruise. The heat was on it was making us really tired. We bought a pizza on the way back, for lunch. We were really tired with the sleep in the train, and the irritation of being in yesterday’s costumeJ. Had a good sleep after lunch, and by the time we could get up it was 5 in the evening. Went out for a walk with the map, just walked aimless, through the river side for sometime, then peeped in to a Casino and tried our luck spending 1 $ ( I have not changed at all, eh ?) as Krithi wanted to see how the machine works J.
Walked back home by around 8:30 to have a pizza dinner in the restaurant attached to our Hotel. That ends the first day in Brisbane.

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The weather change is really explicit. It is pretty warm and all plants are trying to be as beautiful as they can, looks like they are competing for creating the best flowers!

So this is the best time to plan long trips, I was more anxious to see the Australian countryside in spring. Some research gave me the information of this so-called backpacker ticket provided by Country Link rail, which is only given to foreigners (you have to present your foreign passport). It comes in different durations from 3 weeks to 6 months, and enables us to travel throughout the state of New South Wales (which is actually bigger than the Great BritainJ) plus Canberra, Melbourne and Brisbane. That is we can do unlimited trips within these limits for the availed period. We decided to take the 6 months ticket as it is 60 bucks more than the 3 months pass! It cost us 386 per person!

Now, all we need to do is to plan a trip, looks at the timetables, tell Country Link of the details and they ill book the tickets for us and we can collect it from the office near our home. The only limitation is we will get only the chair car, and can book for 1st class (which only contains sleeper) paying the difference.

A long weekend was coming our way in the form of ‘Labour Day’. We planned it for Brisbane, and then started the next trouble – accommodation. Web is full of sites which offer accommodation, but all needs credit card. I am still keeping away from credit cards (as most of you know my story in South Africa), they just hang up if I say I am looking for a bank transfer or cheque. Moreover, Australia is becoming notorious for credit card frauds. So that is a problem.

We started checking with many sites, and then, started looked for the trave agents. Some were looking for a big amount as commission. It went on for a couple of days. The old trick I played in Scotland may not work as I am not a bachelor anymore. I can’t just go to a strange place for the first time in a new country, and look for some accommodation after an overnight 14 hour travel J.

We had almost lost the hope, had already booked the train tickets too. Krithi just gave a try at the Country Link counter if there is any hope. There we go…. They had accommodation booking through a travels with no extra cost than what the hotels offer (the commissions may be from the other side) and we got the advantage of getting the hotel near to the railway station on top of a hill!

Then we went for making more plans. Brisbane has two coasts across the North and South: Sunshine coast on the North and Gold coast on the South. Gold coast has more of the theme parks, rides, and some sea world and water world sort of stuffs, more of a commercialised place than a peaceful countryside which I was looking for the spring. Sunshine coast on the other hand, not famous as Gold Coast, and contains good beaches, most of the lonely! Both the places are approx. 1 hour away from Brisbane in the opposite directions. That is all I knew about these places. We made it simple, go by the overnight train and roam around in Brisbane for one day, spend the next day in Sunshine coast and the third day take the day train which will give us a glimpse of how the route looks like J. The last part was a risk as we have to fully depend on the train’s cafeteria.

Day 1:

We had packed up all we want in to two shoulder bags, for 3 days. We started 2 hours early so that we can validate the backpacker tickets at the central station. And there was a clause in the 10 page ticket book saying that if we were travelling in conjunction with a country link service with backpacker ticket, we don’t have to pay for the City Rail trains for going to the station where we have to catch the train. The CityRail guy at the counter was not aware of this. I had a tough time convincing him that we can travel without any other ticket. I had to make my point clear at Parramatta station with City Rail guys, country link people, and the policemen who do the checking in the train. I was clear that I am not going to pay, and at last they agreed.

That took some half an hour, and we reached the Central station by 3:30. We have one more hour to go. The validation got done quickly. We had ample time to have a coffee in ‘Hungry Jacks’
And the Brisbane XPT came to platform No1 by 4. This train would leave us in Brisbane by 6:30 tomorrow morning.

We had another batch of TCSers travelling in the same train, but their destination was Gold coast. Their plan was to get down at Casino at 3:30 in the morning, take the connection bus to reach Gold Coast by around the same time as we reach Brisbane. I was too pessimistic with getting up early in the morning J and so didn’t change my plan. So Anish, Muruganand and Divaker joined us with their wives by 4:15. We were in continuous seats, with a swap we were together and turning around a pair of twin seats (all of them will be turned in the direction of the journey) we were sitting together. Train started by 4:30.

Most of the people turned up with pillows and bed sheets! And, as I had mentioned earlier, most of the Aussie families still have 3+ kids. The Sun was still there and we could take photos. The Hawkesbury River was a good spot to take some photos, only problem being our reflection on the window. Hope I will be able to send across the link of Brisbane photos to all (be patient, it is around 200 pics but as you know I won’t bore you with we standing in the middle).

As the Sun set, we had nothing to do. They started playing cards and we two were just joining them as learners. We had a multi cuisine dinner all trying all dishes each one has got. The lights went off by 10 and we turned the seats back to normal and to sleep, try to sleep J !

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Continuing with the Blue mountain trip, the whole show there is around a set of three rocks called ‘Three Sisters’. They form a part of the , in the shape ‘∩∩∩’. The funda is, they have formed through millions of years by nature.
We had a lunch of Garlic bread, which was the only stuff available in the Scenic World. We were done, and ready to move to the main view point for Three sisters and the landscape, called ‘Echo point’. We had some 20 minutes for the double-decker expected by 2:45. Just took the time to walk down to have a look at the waterfall viewpoint.
The bus dropped us in Echo point in another 5 minutes. We walked down the viewpoint to get a better view. Then a walk of 2kms to the ‘Three sisters’ through the stone pathway created between the woods.
A steep 900 steps climb would take us to the bottom of the rocks, but we chose to be safe J. Back in to the main street, some shopping in the information centre-cum-shop. As in UK, these information centres facilitate accommodation bookings.
Wait for the bus to the next stop. We had had a good experience of the view, and the other viewpoints were not that interesting as these two places. We got down at Leura village centre and it was 4:30. The driver reminded us that the next bus at 5 will be the last bus. He was also suggesting that if anyone is planning to go back to Sydney, they can board the train from Leura itself.
We just walked through the main street taking some snaps. Back to catch the last double-decker, the sky was getting cloudy and it started raining. By the time we reached Katoomba, it has become a heavy rain.
The main street has most of the shops extending their roof to cover the footpath also. We went in to an Italian restaurant nearest to the bus stop. A big vegetarian pizza followed. We had to pack half of it back home and had to finish it for supper. These pizzas costs a bit sometimes, but they make it from the scratch after you order! So that makes it really tasty.
A long wait for the train back in Katoomba station, it was still raining. On the return journey, the rain vanished after Penrith and back in Parramatta, there was no rain at all !



Tailpiece:- Why is the Blue mountain blue ?
There is wonderful similarity coming up for Blue Mountains with our Nilgiris. Nilgiris also means Blue Mountains ! Then how come they are blue. Why is this similarity in naming, across the continents? What is common there? There comes this Eucalyptus. The theory says, the vapours from these trees float in the air giving the landscape a bluish look ! They refer some gum tree vapour also are responsible for this, I am not sure our Ooty has got them

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Blue Mountains to Sydney is Mahabalipuram to Chennai – a sure visit place for anyone staying more than 2 days in Sydney. A places surrounded by hills! You take a train from Sydney and it will drop you in Katoomba in less than 2 hours! Hills, cableways and something they say as World’s steepest railway too!

We had this as the first in the plan, but winter was making us keep postponing the trip. As the winter is giving way to spring (ideally, but still the chilly wind is ), this is the best time to be in Blue Mountains.

It was a Saturday, we started by around 9:20. Parramatta, where we live, is on the way to Katoomba from Sydney Central. The CityRail offers a combined ticket which incorporates a return train ticket with a site seeing double-decker for one day. It costs around A$38.

We got a train by around 9:45, it runs every one hour. The trains were more crowded, a clear reflection of the climate change! Crowded, I mean, relatively crowded. We were just finding it tough to get a side seat. Sometime people just spread around their hats, bags etc around them filling all 4 seats for a single person! You really have to stand and give them a stare for the bags to be put in its place!

As the train was moving away from the city, the flats started disappearing. Once it past Penrith, the limit of the city trains, it was fully moving in through woods. Slowly we were surrounded by mountains, and far above the sea level!

The train dropped us in Katoomba by around 11:20. A livelier town or I will call a village as the shops and crowds ended once you walk a 100 metre away from the station. We came out of the station, walked to the office across the street to change the link ticket from CityRail, to get a bus pass along with a map book depicting a lot of walking trails and the route for this hop on-off bus. This hop on off concept is same popular one in Europe! You take a day’s ticket and you can use the bus, which keep on going around in a specific route, thus turning up at the same spot every 1 hour or half an hour. So you can get down anywhere, spend sometime there, and pick the same bus to the next stop!

It was a double-decker running for the London Transport. The label was still on it. Again, inside the bus, the stickers normally seen in the London buses were still there! We got the driver seat in the first floor (I mean, the front seat on the top of the decker, which is a normal seat. That used to be my favourite in my childhood days). We decided to go for a full route first and then decide on which all to be prioritised for getting down and spending time. The bus went on with us, passing some stunning views of mountains, view points, the Scenic World (which has this cableway, and winch across the mountains), golf courses, houses with gardens, and then it was village nearby called Leura. This one looked like a typical English village – a long street full of small shops, selling paintings, flowers, a bar, butchery, a bakery, a pizza shop and so on.

During the next round, we got down at Scenic World, took a combined ticket for all the three trips. Started with the scenic rail which, they say, is the steepest in the World! It was taking us down through a slit between two huge rocks almost vertically! The ride will be for some 30 seconds, but it was amazing. We were actually sitting horizontally and the train was moving not as fast as a ride, it looked wonderful why we were not getting pushed out of the seat! I forgot the tickets leaving it in my seat. We had started walking through the rainforest which they call as scenic walk. Suddenly I realised it and came back. The train has gone up to pick the next set of people. I was amazed to see the tickets lying in the same spot, when the train came back!

We completed the walk, through the forest. We have to walk half a km and then, we will be picked up by a cable car of a capacity about 15 people taking us to the top. The last stretch was another cable car to take us to a point from one hill to another and bring back. It was again having a capacity of 10 plus, but was empty when we went in. That was amazing one. They had made the flooring also with transparent glass which made a flying feeling! A water fall, down below, gave us the feel of the depth. I would say that was the best of all!

I think it is enough for a week. I will continue with it next week.

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We started where we left it last week. We, actually planned for a two day trip with a day stay there in Kiama or Wollongong. But I got too confused that nothing really happened on Saturday J !
The same train on Sunday, and reached Wollongong around the same time, seeing the same views! Isn’t it boring? But this time, we had a better flask; we planned our lunch to be taken at the Buddhist temple. Nowhere could we find where to get a bus or timings, for the temple! Anyway, we walked to the closest bus stop and checked the timetable. It had an entry for the place where the temple is situated. We had no clue of the next bus, it said after an hour!
But sometimes, timetables go wrong for good! A bus turned up in 10 minutes! It was costly, far costly compared to the train fare and Sydney city buses. For a 15 minute ride, we were charged A$4 per head! The only good thing was, the driver was asking us whether we have to get down at the temple, straightaway, while issuing the ticket. The bus went out of the town area, was moving parallel to the rail and crossed a level cross( with no gate man), climbed a hill and dropped us in an isolated place where we could see a Chinese building inside the gate far away hidden in woods.
The time was around 2pm. The driver told us that there will be only one bus to go back now, around 5:40pm. The temple was built up around a compound of some acres, landscaped with trees, pond (we saw some lotus leaves, but no lotus), some ducks in them. The temple architecture was typical Chinese with the curves and all. I still wonder whether it was Chinese, as the whole premises including the Shrine was crystal clean and very well maintained.
We saw the boards saying No meat, No alcohol, no smoking, no pets, etc. in the premises. We tried the small restaurant like below, which was obviously fully vegetarian. I ordered for a vegetarian mince with noodles, and Krithi tried some Veggie nuggets. The dishes arrived, made of mushrooms in different shapes and colours – mostly look like meat ! I confirmed with them twice or thrice and the monk was smiling and telling that it is all mushroom no meat J !
Krithi couldn’t get on with it (She had to depend on the sandwiches we brought with us for lunch). So I had to eat them both! It was tasty, with a difference.
We slowly climbed the steps to the shrine. It was a Buddha with 12 hands (or more?) all having weapons of different kind ! I think, I have missed out something here! Else how can I see a God, who is the teacher of Ahmisa, standing packed with all sorts of weapons like a God of destruction! The prayer hall was silent. There was a stand on the corner selling some beautiful candles covered with glass, and some incense sticks, again for offering. The prayer style suggested was standing on the knees! More like the idol is similar to a Hindu God and the rest (candles, praying on knee) similar to Christianity!
We climbed the steps through the sides to the main shrine. It was bigger than I thought; the infrastructure around the main shrine included a Student room, a painting gallery, a dining hall, and a souvenir shop. The shrine consisted of 5 huge Buddhas sitting in colourful attire, each representing a direction (the 5th Buddha for the middle direction). The main shrine built in a Chinese style resembled the palace structure in ‘The Last Emperor’ from outside. Inside, the walls were gloriously filled up with small Buddhas in 1 foot squares, lighted with a neon lamp, uniquely named and covered in glass! Sounded very much taken from Hinduism, chants thousand names for God! The floor was having some cushions for seats where you can kneel down and pray. In front of the five Buddhas covered in glass, plenty of candles been lighted by the worshippers. There were prayers written in English and Chinese, for different purposes (money, prosperity and what not). Easy way of praying, isn’t it? Decide what all you want, and then, take the respective notes and read it silentlyJ !
We spent exploring the premises, for an hour more and came out by 4:50. We had more than half an hour for the bus. Just gave a try to walk down the hill, to the nearest rail station. The roads are empty with a few cars passing by.
We walked for some 40 minutes to reach the station, Unanderra. Now, we had to wait for an hour in that small, lonely station. The station is empty, not even a station master, except an young guy with his girl friend who got disturbed with our presence. The machine gives the ticket, and there is no need for anyone to be in the station! By the time train came, there were some more people started coming – a drunkard gang of teenagers, and a couple of girls. Though the gang was talking to each other using all swear words, it was within them. As far as we are not too bothered about it, can just stand away as nothing is happening; none is going to bully you.
The train was empty again, dropped us back at Central by around 8. One more weekend gone with a bit of redundancy with the travel, but there was this unique experience of a Chinese temple. Mind is filled with a lot of questions: Buddha had been customised for marketing? Or is it something in Buddhism we never have heard?
I also overheard one of the monks explaining to the tourist saying, ‘We are also like you. We also believe that a Buddha will take birth (I am not sure what he meant by ‘you’. Christianity is heard to have this basic difference between Christians and Jews that Christians have Jesus as God, and Jews are still waiting for Jesus. So for both of them, The Bible is the religious text)’. That seems to be something sounds like ‘Heenayana’. I know that Mahayana worships Gautam Buddha as their God (and those are the only two partitions in Buddhism).
Please revert if you have any idea about this, or if you feel I am wrong about anything.


Tailpiece:- About my query on Australia as a colony, one of my friends replied that Canada is also similar. Though it was freed from English colonialism, still they maintain Queen, for their coins, holidays, and heard they even pay taxes to the Queen! So, ‘Mera Bharat Mahan’, we have left it long long ago !

Information :- About Nan-Tien Temple : Opened in 1995, the Temple is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. Wollongong was chosen as the site for the Temple because of the ideal location of Mt Keira and Mt Kembla in relation to the site. The name 'Wollongong' also has significance in the way that it is a tribute to a Chinese man of great intelligence named Wollong. The translation of Nan Tien is ‘Paradise of the Southern Hemisphere’.

AUSSIE WEEKENDER 10

It was another weekend, and we had run out of plan. We had planned to start going out of Sydney now. Though we have a lot to see in Sydney itself, we can keep them as fillers and start going for long ones now.
To begin with, I was planning to start with one day trips, to places where we can reach with a 2-3 hour travel and then, spend a day there and come back home by late evening. That will give a feel of the places outside Sydney in terms of expenses and food. That is, if I can see that in an outer area is a problem for vegetarian food; I will have to plan for either for packing food or take a self contained cottages.
We had Blue mountain as the first pick, and we didn’t bother to check for others at all ! Checking the weather, the Mercury level was still giving us a ‘negative’ answer ! But it was too late by the time we dropped Blue Mountains. Else, this place is an hour from Sydney and the train will pass through Parramatta.
We spotted a diesel locomotive train in our of our leaflets, which takes us for a day tour leaving Sydney Central in the morning and reaches back by evening. The journey is the attraction here – the route passes through the Royal National Park, a cliff and seashore to Wollongong and then climbs a hill to reach the destination, Robertson ! It just reaches there stays 2 hours, and comes back. But by the time we started chasing it, the offices were closed. As it was a private rail, none know about it in the City Rail office ! Again, it runs only on Wednesdays and Sundays. The tour costs A$85 pp. So, we got Saturday free to plan( *understood* free to sleep too) !
There goes the filler concept – this is where the remaining spots in Sydney comes! We planned for an IMAX experience, and while going to the city planned to check for more information about the Cockatoo run( that is the touring rail’s name).
Took a return ticket to Town Hall station, got down at the Central for more information ( but I can’t go out of the station as the return tickets does not allow breaking the journey, unless for changing trains). The rail staff had no clue about this rail. But they gave me another valuable information. The normal trains go through that route to the same destination, and it costs just 18 bucks for a same day return! Then, we are paying the extra 70 bucks for just the diesel experience( which we get in India without any choice) ! The normal trains also takes the 2 hours plus, and we will have the advantage of travelling free than depending on this train which will wait at the destination for 40 mins for shopping and lunch, before it starts its journey back.
Walking to the Darling harbour from Town Hall, the cloudy sky started a light& shade show with the Sun and the clouds! I will say it was the best, better than the IMAX ! The sky was dark, and suddenly we found only the skyscrapers behind us lit by the Orange Sun rays! As the Sun went down, it gave a beautiful backlit sky ! And whoever had a camera or a camcorder were copying it into the celluloid. But, I have seen the best shows of nature only when I forget to take my SLR. Today was no exceptionL !
IMAX, I had my first experience of a 3D film in my life and Krithi, it was her first IMAX experience! A show costs A$17( for 3D and 16 for 2D), and you will get a A$27 if you can see two shows one after the other !
For Sunday, we decided to give a try to take the normal train and see what can see ! We chose Wollongong, a spot on the way which is a coastal spot. It was just a 1hr 40 min. journey, and the trains left Central every hour. We started by 11 from home to take the 11:44 train starting from Central. We took a direct ticket from Parramatta and rushed into the local train just ready to depart. It was as usual slow. It dropped us at the central station by 11:38 at platform 6. We have to see which platform our trains for Wollongong depart. Each platform/ the escalator to the platform will have a TV displaying only the routes of the trains departing from that platform. Nowhere can you get the big pictureL ! So we did a running to the main board to check with the information, and ran to platform 14, the train was just about to close its doors!
As a precaution for the first journey, we had taken a flask full coffee and some sandwiches! The train was slow but it was not stopping in any of the local stations! It went in to a tunnel after Waterfall station, and there we go…. ! It was full of trees, dominated by Eucalyptus (now we know why Koala is so choosy, and may be why Australia is very dry)!
The train stopped at one or two stations, and was moving faster than ever before! It was going through a tunnel every 10 minutes! There were a couple of bridges too, very old ones! We exited a tunnel and down some 200-300 meters was a beach! We were on the edge of a sea cliff ! It was greenery around us, and filtering through the woods was the glittering sun rays resulting from the reflection of the beach! It took a turn through the side of the next hill to go much closer to the beach, and at a point, the sea was just below us down the hill! I would say it was beautiful!
It was travelling through the coast at some distance – the greenery in between slowly tuning in to roads, houses, shops and all. It approached small stations every 5-10 mins. A very useful fact I noticed was a board with the next station name on it, at the end of platform for each station.
It dropped us at Wollongong by around 1:20. We walked with no plans ahead. All we know is, we had to take a train back by evening. We know there is a beach there, and there is a Buddhist temple too! That latter is been told as the biggest in Southern hemisphere!
We had a problem with my bag getting wet with the coffee leaking from our new flask, just bought a day ago! We cleaned up the mess, but some of our travel books had already gone for a toss! Foreign vacuum flask, ehJ !
We found a shopping mall there, as good as one we could find in Sydney! We spotted the food court and had Pizza( this looks better, at least you get some pizzas all over the country. Thanks to Roman !). A long walk to the beach, and spent sometime walking through the rocks and that was it. We had to cancel the Buddha temple plan as the last bus was also gone by 3 (we realised that it is far and there are only buses once in 2 hours) !
That was all we could do that day, so it was at the end of the day just as good as the train journey! We returned by 4:30 train, promising we will be right back :) !

AUSSIE WEEKENDER 9

Getting into the big picture now, Australia is a place big enough to be told as the 6th largest country in the World next to Russia, Canada, China, USA and Brazil. It is the flattest and driest of continents (after Antarctica). This landmass of 7.7 million sq.km( India is around 3 million sq.km) yet has got extremes of climates and topography !
There are rainforests and vast plains in the north, snowfields in the south east, desert in the centre and fertile croplands in the east, south and south west. About one third of the country lies in the tropics. Australia has a coastline of 36,735km - if it were possible to drive non-stop along the entire coast at 60 km/h it would take about 24 days to complete the trip !
Australia consists of 8 territories : New South Wales, Western Australia, South Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania( this is a small Island on its South east corner) and ACT( Australian Capital Territory).
The local currency is Australian dollars which costs around 33 INR. The denominations are cents. The currency notes are in denominations of 100, 50, 20, 10 and 5. The coins goes as $2, $1, 50c, 20c, 10c and 5c. Like India, 5c is the minimum denomination. The currency notes are thin, and like a polythene sheet with some faces featured on it( I have not heard of anyone before). The coins mostly contain Queen's face( no confusion, I am talking about Queen Elizabeth II only ) ! The coin size grows bigger till 50c( 50c coin is bigger than any coin I have ever seen). $1 coin is a bit smaller( comes to our 50ps size) and $2 is smaller than that( its radius is almost same as 5c). The difference is, $1 and $2 are heavy and made of bronze(not sure what it is, the same metal as 1pound coin) whereas the other coins are made of nickel/steel.
This coin's head raises a big question: Is Australia still a British colony?! The union jack part in the map of Australia ( same as New Zealand’s flag) is again confusing ! To my knowledge Australia still got a Governor General! Queen’s Birthday is a National Holiday here! Any idea ?
But, I still know that the immigration laws are separate, UK citizen need a Visa to enter Australia, and so this is surely a separate country!
Coming back to the vastness, there is a wonderful train across Australia. It starts from Sydney on Saturday afternoon and ends its journey in Perth travelling some 4000+ kms, by Tuesday! It is a bit expensive with the fare coming to A$1500 one way per person for getting a berth, and if you are ready to spend 3 nights in a daynighter seat, it is A$550. This is heard to be a life time experience to travel across Australia. It travels the World’s longest straight stretch of railway track (478 kms ! ), and promises you unique landscapes and fascinating array of wildlife from the comfort of the lounge or your cabin.
The travelling costs compells me to restrict my journeys or rather, sample them. A night's stay costing around 150-200 bucks and the food costing some 100 per day, travel is costly even without the train fares. Again, after all this, we rather end up getting tried at the destination after a long journey may not be worth it.

AUSSIE WEEKENDER 8

Australia is the land of Kangaroos. But we have not yet met one! The only place we can see a Kangaroo in Sydney, is Zoo ! There is another species Koala, you can say it is like Panda.
There was a place nearby which they called Featherdale Wildlife Park, which turned out to be a place little bigger than our Panagal park J !
We had to take a bus after getting down from the train. On Sundays, the frequency of the buses is only once in an hour ! And we landed just when the bus just left ! That left us wait in the bus stand for an hour. It was noon by the time we reached the gates of the ‘Park’.
Once we had a look at it, and realised that it has all birds except a crocodile( which I doubt Krithi is still believing that it was a statue), some reptiles in a small room and then some Koalas and small kangaroos. And for that, the entry fee was A$18 !
The birds which can fly out were in cages, and the fats ones were out in small river-shaped pond (I would like to call it so, as it was supposed to look like a river and got some flow also, of recycling. But I hate to call a 100 meter -sort-of-river, a river).
That is it with them and we will move to Koalas. None of them are caged, and at places we never even had fences. The advertisement itself was ‘take a snap with Koala’. There are one or two kangaroos also in the open.
Koalas are the most wonderful creatures I have ever seen. They just somehow manage to be in between the branches of a tree, and that is it! You should be lucky to see it moving! It mostly will be sleeping, sitting on some branches of the tree and holding the next branch tightly, like a standing person sleeping in a running bus! In between it opens its eyes, looks around with minimal movement for its head, like the sleeping traveller sees whether the bus has reached his place, and goes back to sleep J. It was fun watching them, as they look cute, but deadly lazy!
They eat only Eucalypts leaves! Believe me, I just mean it! They won’t eat anything other than that, it is said to get 90% of its hydration from these leaves. It only drinks water when the leaves are dry, or when it get sick! The word Koala came from the aboriginal language which means ‘no drink’! It will be more surprising when you know that these leaves are very low in nutrition and extremely poisonous to most of the animals.
This chap, then says he is very choosy! All he eats is only Eucalypts leaves and that too he eats only a few types of them! Luckily that Australia has some 80 types of Eucalypts J.
They are also like Kangaroos in carrying the young ones in a pouch! I was of the impression that only Kangaroos do this!
But at the end of the day, this guy won’t even move for the fear that movement may trigger the digestion of what they ate and so may have to eat again J ! I think their fat, bluffy body should be a lesson for people who think that fasting is the way to become slim :D.
We met some Kangaroos also. They are mostly fed up with the feeding of the people coming there. They also follow Koala as their stomach is full J !
We finished it all in 1-2 hours, and that too because we spent too much time waiting to see Koala moving J ! A restaurant inside the park had only French fries (rather will say potatoes in the shape of French fries) for vegetarians!

Tailpiece:- School looks full fun here ! They got a hell lot of vacations – 1.5 months for Christmas, 1 month April, 2 weeks in July and 2 weeks in September !

Information :- More information about Koalas can be found at : http://www.thekoala.com/koala/index.htm

AUSSIE WEEKENDER 7

I have missed this Taxi driver’s story in between.
It was a Sunday( 3rd July), and we were moving from St.Leonards to Parramatta. He was not sure of the location of where we wanted to go, but had a street map. I just helped him out in spotting the place we wanted to go, to the precise point where the apartments are.
Then he started with asking me whether I am a software professional, and whom I am working for and all. I took this opportunity to go in to his life and get his story.
I will call him Ching, a Chinese migrated to Australia some 10 years ago. He had come to Australia some 10 years ago. He struggled a bit to find a job, and then started with driving taxi. Once slowly settled down his parents in China started looking for a girl for him. He says, then, he could see the girls have changed over 3-4 years when he went back to his home country. They were only looking for money. He was telling some examples of his friends who married from China and the girl ran away with a rich man in Sydney, after an year or so !
So, Ching dropped that plan and found a girl, basically Vietnamese, settled in Sydney itself. She also came to work and almost 3 years she has been in Sydney when Ching met her. He feels that this gave him the advantage that she will be comfortable with the environment, and don’t have to worry much about her language problems or cultural shocks. He is now married to her and has got two kids.
The taxi drivers works in shifts. One person is only allowed to work for 8-9 hours only. They take one day off a week. Most of the drivers, Ching says, start by 6am or 7am and work till 3pm. Ching normally starts an hour late, and stays for an hour or two more so that he can exploit the demand for taxi around 3 pm when all taxis vanishes. The second set of people takes over to work till midnight, after that.
Ching is a Buddhist, but he was telling me he will eat fish and meat. Once a week they will fast, that is fully vegetarian. I was about to ask him why, as the followers of Buddha – the father of Ahimsa, they are eating meat, but then I realise in spite of all this wisdom and charm, this question may be too much for a poor taxi driver ! I have the danger of us been forced to get down somewhere on the roadside with all my luggage J !
I am not sure whether I am becoming a story teller from a traveller, but I think these stories are also part of the journey J.
By the by, these guys here never worry about helping you out with loading your luggage, and never worry about the tip too! If you give them a tip, they are more than happy, that is all. I am just telling this, as it is the other way in US.


Tailpiece:- About Driver's license in the Aussie Government Site J,
Whether you rent or buy, you'll need a valid driver's license. If you have a driver's license from your home country, with your photograph on it, you probably won't need anything else. In some cases you may need to carry a translation of your license if it isn't in English. You probably do not need a so-called international drivers' license - they went out of fashion years ago.

Information :- Taxi charges-
Booking- $ 1.15,
Flag off - $ 2.75( what we call minimum),
per km - $ 1.56

AUSSIE WEEKENDER 6

The days are mostly pleasant here. It was rainy for one or two days in June, but it is no more like that. The temperature is also pretty consistent.
The shops normally closes around 5-5:30, except one or two like Woolworths. On Thursdays, they are open till late, mostly till 9. So, if you can plan your purchases on Thursday, weekends will be all yours!
For this weekend, we left the Saturday for sleeping, and planned for Sunday. Again, it will be 12 by the time it is morning for me J. This week, the rail maintenance was for our area, and Parramatta station was closed. We got a notice in all our post boxes notifying this! This replacement buses till Granville, the next rail junction from where we can carry on with train journey. The day’s plan was to get down at Town Hall and go to the top of Sydney Tower.
We had a downtown’s map to guide us. A 10 mins walk from Town Hall station, we came across some old huge malls on the way. A shopping complex built in early 60s or before -something like a shopping complex looking like our old government office buildings !
Then, was this shopping area with two huge malls on both sides, and from the middle of one of them goes the Tower, going up and up for some 1000 Feet – it is about 4 times our Kutub Minar, New Delhi ; 4 times the height of The monument, London ; only 81 metres less than the Empire State building Structure ! I can swear it is the highest view I have ever got from a man made structure! (I am not sure of the Fire Exit :D ). There are 4 round floors on the top, and an open terrace!
The first two floors are restaurants. You have to take $40 entry ticket (per person) and get in to another set of lifts to reach one of those revolving restaurants. Imagine sitting and eating at some 1000 feet high, and while you eat, the building is rotating slowly, to finish one rotation in an hour ! You will see the whole of Sydney!
This is told to be the highest building in Southern hemisphere. Aussies are lucky that US went in to the northern hemisphere J !
We had our lunch to finish. We settled for a north indian shop in the food court downstairs (Central Plaza), which got settled for around $15 - for rice, a curry, some pakodas and pappadams ! Then we just had a walk around, went to the entry ticket counter by 2:30. The entry to the top floor for view costs $22 per person and this comes along with a hologram show known as ‘Oz-Trek’ when you come down.
A small queue for the checking before entering the lift, for sharp objects or weapons, and here we go. The lift was fast enough to take us to the top in less than one minute, non-stop.
This floor is only for viewing. The middle portion has lifts, souvenir shop, and steps to go to the coffee & bar below. There is this terrace on top, which is open! They charge you $110 to go there, rather take you there, with safety equipments and it is referred as ‘Sky walk’.
Views from all sides were looking good. One part had the view of the sea with the Bondi beach, we had the harbour, and the main parts on the other side! We spend around an hour on the top, didn’t buy the souvenirs as a small 15cm model of the Tower cost $23!
We came down to enjoy a Virtual Reality show, which took us to an air ride above the harbour bridge, and then a lot of places in Australia ! It was a first time experience for me, have heard of such things from Brajesh and others – the shows in Universal Studios. May be it is a similar one?
We had spotted some beautiful meadows and fountains( Hyde Park) from the top, just walked in that direction and spent a peaceful evening there. Walked over to the Harbour, back to the Town Hall station, we had done with the day and back home by 8. One more weekend is over.

Tailpiece :-

Information :-
About the Sydney Tower: (taken from) http://www.sydneyskytour.com.au/tower.html
Construction of Sydney Tower Centrepoint began in late 1970 with the first 52 shops opening in 1972. The office component was completed in 1974 and the final stage of the complex, the Sydney Tower, was opened to the public in August 1981.

Ranked as one of the safest buildings in the world the design has made the tower capable of withstanding earthquakes and extreme wind conditions. 56 cables stabilise the tower, and if the strands of these cables were laid end to end, they would reach from Sydney to Alice Springs, or from Sydney to New Zealand.
The turret has a capacity of 960 persons, and contains two levels of restaurants, a coffee lounge, an Observation Deck, two telecommunication transmission levels and three plant levels.

Three high speed double Deck Lifts take approximately 40 seconds to travel from top to bottom.

The 1504 stairs, constantly monitored by security, provide emergency exit from the tower. Divided into two fire-isolated sets of pressurised stairs, they allow patrons direct access to street level.

The 420 windows of the tower are cleaned by a semi-automatic window-cleaning machine, which recycles and filters 50 litres of water. This machine takes two days to clean all 420 windows.

A 162,000 litre water tank, the tower's primary damping system, one million dollars worth of fire protection equipment and countless sprinklers add to the safety standards which far exceed normal building requirements.

AUSSIE WEEKENDER 5

The Sun was shining, my first allowance is credited in my account and it is a Saturday too! What a way to begin a weekend!

There is a day-tripper ticket, similar to weekend pass in London, which allows you to travel in train, bus or ferry through out the city, except for the private services. This costs some AU$15 whereas London weekend pass costs 8 pounds. But the latter is valid for two days! I would have to say transport here is costlier than London!!!

I checked the ferry schedule and we decided to leave by the one at 12. It is just 10min walk to the Ferry from home. We reached the ferry in time; it was big enough to accommodate 100+ people. The water was stinking, but the landscape looked beautiful!

And we started by 12. It was quite sunny. We both chose to stand in the deck with many other people, enjoying the winter Sun. Imagine a single ferry takes you from a canal in English country side (with those small stone bridge, with pavements and meadows on the banks), then in to wet lands like in Pichavaram (any wetlands will do ;) ), and slowly enter the canals of Venice !!! Now you see houses with entrance to the water, and shed for the boat (like a car shed) ! Slowly the scenario changes as you pass through some vacant land - a factory, lots of ship carriage boxes near it- nearing more urban areas. A huge bridge with road and rail, and then you enter water more of a part of sea than a river. Still, the water is narrow; the hilly roads on the banks are so steep that the parked cars seem like waiting for their turns to jump in to the water!

The water starts getting widened; some schooners standing in the middle! It resembles some pictures of Norway, Greece sort of. Then the real Sydney, incomparable, when the ferry taking a left turn and you suddenly see the harbour bridge and all this skyscrapers behind it, the busy port, the Opera house….You can see a lot of big ferries crossing the water , the waves they send out hits your ferry and it sways. And slowly you cross the harbour bridge, and take a right turn, just before the Opera house on your left, the trip comes to an end at Jetty 4 in Circular Quay.
I think I am exhausted with my words now. But just will be able to say this much that it was a memorable trip for us, and the explanation I gave is not even one tenth of what it really is! But for now, let me continue.

We walked to spot the ‘India Quay’ restaurant, which we had planned for our lunch, thanks to Binish Gopal( with his reference in ‘Sydney Badaees’ I could get its map and menu too, on net). The same was spotted easily, we had just planned for a walk around and come back for lunch. But our fate had other plans ! We were just passing a small bus stop and we saw a bus to the Bondi beach ! We had never travelled in a bus in Australia till now, and this beach was on top in our list for places to visit.

We checked with the driver and boarded the bus, to start another new experience. Through the one way steep roads of downtown, and on our both sides, a lot of old Victorian style buildings, and new concrete skyscrapers, a good mix of them! It slowly became a bit less messy, and purely residential, suburb areas. In some 10-15 minutes, we could see the beach in between the gaps of houses and bushes, down the hill!

Got down at the beach – a beautiful one with white soft sand, waves not very strong, but enough to hit and splash at the cliffs on our both sides. We both forgot the lunch and started walking through the beach - watching the surfers, taking some snaps, and continued the walk climbing the cliff which was projected to the sea, and through a path for pedestrians cut through the middle of the cliff. There were some portions of rocks in front of us, which looked like they were under water for a long time. I think this walk went on for an hour or two. Krithi was excited with the sea and I used it well for this long walk J. By the time she felt that we had getting tired, we had come far away from the beach J ! The main road was somewhere behind the hill, we climbed the steps to the nearest road, it was around 3:30 !

We ended up in a residential area, which was almost empty except some cars passing by. Spotted the nearest bus stop, and checked with the bus timings. But we had no clue where this buses goes to is in the same direction. I appreciate the London bus stops, which use to have a map of the routes which ach buses from that stop goes.

I was right in my worry, the first bus turned up in a few minutes and the driver showed me the bus stop for bus in the opposite direction. Another wait for the correct bus, which dropped us in Bondi Junction rail station.

Again, we were ‘fortunate’ in finding that the station is closed for maintenance and replacement buses are running till ‘Edgecliff’. Took a train from Edgecliff to get down at Town Hall, another train to Circular Quay, it was 4:30 by the time we reached ‘India quay’ for lunch! The fortune was again with us, ‘India quay’ was closed! Biniiiiissshhh….

We had no choice other than stupid Mc Donalds ! Krithi was giving me a look, it was her first birthday after marriage ! I was planning a memorable Indian lunch after the romantic ferry and beach, and see where ‘India Quay’ left me !

Took another ferry to Darling harbour, it would have been another good experience with the sky getting dark, Opera house and the bridge getting lighted – but there was this winter breeze which forced us to get in to the ferry and see all through window glass. I still managed to take some snaps, but without my tripod I doubt whether it will come without a shake !



I went too long ? I doubt yes. Anyway, the best part is over. We waited in the harbour for the fireworks, till 7:30. The mercury was dropping, and with the freezy breeze it was impossible to keep on waiting with no idea of when it will happen. A crowd had gathered and some were saying it 8 and some saying 8:30 ! Some rock music was going on and we had no interest in it anyway. Took a ferry back to the Quay and had a good dinner in ‘India Quay’. The last ferry to Parramatta had gone at 7 itself, so only train was an option.

Tail piece:- “ Australia is the land of Kangaroo. When Captain Cook saw the strange animal for the first time he had no one but the natives to ask what they call it. Unable to understand his question, they replied "Kan Ga Roo" meaning "I don't Know"! Tree Kangaroos of Taronga Zoo, Sydney.” Taken from http://sureshgo.tripod.com/, site of my supersenior who was in REC few years ago and in Sydney as well sometime back. He got nostalgic and wrote back when I wrote about St.Leonards, as he was working there.
Information :- The plug points are different from that in UK and India, I think they insisted to keep a different configuration ! It looks like ‘ / \ ‘ compared to UK ‘ ‘ and Indian, ‘o o’. The earth pin is ‘ ‘ same as UK :D. I am not sure whether the whole Europe follows UK’s method, and whole Asian pins looks like that in India.